Well, I am working on my Genesis and SegaCD console this weekend. The Genesis board has all pass through caps on the board and I just cut them off and went through and removed each little leg wire and solder one by one.
Are there good / cheap desoldering units? I am talking in the $100 range. If they are not worth it I will keep going the way I am going with the plunger.
I am a cheap sucker.... Not a high class professional sucker... o.O
Not really, the best thing is to try to find the Hakko 808 or FR300 at a discount, you can grab them for around $180 if you're lucky.
I know, that's a LOT of money. But the time savings are incredible and will pay for itself after just a few projects. I can strip a Genesis of all the through hole caps in like two minutes. Another two minutes and I can get the cart slot too.
You are right about the Genesis. It took me around 4hrs total to remove, clean and then recap the one console. Mostly because I wanted it to look perfect as well. I know if I had a desolder gun I could have bypassed most of the time consuming parts of it.
My goal is to try and fix 1-2 consoles per day and right now it's a struggle to get one done and have everything look professional. Double check the system for operation and meets the customers wants for audio and video output.
I try to test a console for at least 24hrs after working on it by looping music and games through it to make sure it won't overheat, doesn't have any video or audio issues and that the carts, cd's or whatever media is working as intended.
As much as I like my Radio Shack Pro-Line 25w I think it's time to move on and to seriously look at a desolder gun once I have the funds.
